This is What the Keystone XL Pipeline Looks Like

January 7, 2013 | 10:11 AM

A worker inspects a segment of the Keystone XL Pipeline before it's lowered into a trench near Stroud, Okla.

Construction of the southern portion of TransCanada’s Keystone XL Pipeline has been underway since August, and crews in Oklahoma started laying, welding, inspecting and burying the bright, teal-green pipeline in November.

There were 450 pipeline workers on the ground in Oklahoma when StateImpact checked in on construction in December. The crew count has now ballooned to 850 workers, the Journal Record‘s D. Ray Tuttle reports. Construction of the Oklahoma-to-Texas portion of the Keystone XL Pipeline is about one-third complete, should wrap this summer and be operational by the end of 2013:

The southern section of the extended pipeline will begin carrying 700,000 barrels a day of crude oil to Texas refineries from Cushing, [TransCanada spokesman Jim] Prescott said.

“This will relieve the bottleneck at Cushing,” Prescott said.

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About StateImpact Oklahoma

StateImpact Oklahoma is a collaboration of KGOU, KOSU, KWGS and KCCU. Joe Wertz and Logan Layden travel the state to report on the intersection of government, industry, natural resources and the Oklahoma workforce. Read our reports and hear our stories on NPR member stations.